ICC World Cup 2015: India vs Pakistan - Player ratings

India Cricket Team

India beat Pakistan comprehensively on Sunday, to register what is their first proper win in the last two months spent in Australia. As a 6-0 scoreline is rubbed in, and Pakistan’s wait for a World Cup victory against India is prolonged – we rate the players from both sides who took the field:

Rohit Sharma – 1/10

Coming into this game, a lot was expected out of Rohit – especially considering the fact that he had two hundreds under his belt from the last three games that he played. While, he did manage to rotate the strike initially and pick up a couple of boundaries, he fell too early to be of any use to the team.

Shikhar Dhawan – 8/10

Indian fans all across the globe must have heaved a sigh of relief when this man from Delhi got going today. Coming out of patchy form, it was critical that Dhawan got some runs under his belt in the high voltage contest against Pakistan. Not only did he score the runs, he scored them at his own pace and set the tone of the match. An innings that would do his confidence a world of good. His 129 run partnership with Kohli set the platform for Raina’s assault, making his half century applaud worthy.

Virat Kohli – 9/10

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. There is no better sight than Virat Kohli middling the ball well early on in his innings. Coming into the game with a lot of talk about his form and batting position, Kohli silenced all his doubters with an imposing century. A century that would go on to lend a lot of stability to the Indian middle order and win him the Man of the Match. Later in the game, the Delhi boy also latched onto a good catch to dismiss the dangerous Shahid Afridi.

Suresh Raina – 8.5/10

In terms of runs, Raina did as well as Dhawan did. But in terms of impact, the southpaw’s innings was a notch above the rest. Five fours, three sixes and a strike-rate of 132 was what ensured that India managed to reach 300 inspite of the late wobble. Raina seemed to be in supreme touch on match day, attacking the short ball with ease and confidence. The rate at which he scored provided a safety cushion to all the other batsmen batting with him or after him. He also took two brilliant catches in the slips, something that Indians haven’t been doing lately and bowled a tidy over.

MS Dhoni – 7/10

Although the Indian captain didn’t score much with the bat, he stamped his authority on a high pressure game that could have gone either way. He led his troops with aplomb and stifled the opposition with his shrewd captaincy. He was quite tidy behind the stumps, taking three important catches.

Ravindra Jadeja – 6/10

Some hard hitting was expected from Ravindra Jadeja as he came out to bat in the 48th over. An encore of some of his IPL exploits wouldn’t have been too bad for his team, but the left-hander from Saurashtra lasted just five deliveries. His batting lower-down the order is something the Indian think tank would be concerned about. With the ball in hand, he picked up a solitary wicket and held onto a difficult catch at point. The USP of his performance though was the rate at which he got done with his overs.

Ajinkya Rahane – 1/10

Like Rohit Sharma, Rahane’s contribution was limited in this game. One might attribute this to how late he was sent out to bat, but the fact is that the only contribution he had was a catch in the dying moments of the game, to dismiss an already surrendered Misbah-ul-Haq.

Ravichandran Ashwin – 8/10

The single wicket does not do justice to how well Ashwin bowled on the given day. It’s not everyday that an off spinner picks up three maidens while bowling to an outfit that is more than comfortable in facing spin. Ashwin’s tight middle overs ensured that India could get done with their overs quickly, thereby strangling Pakistan’s run chase. His sole wicket was of a threatening and settled Haris Sohail in the 18th over.

Mohammed Shami – 8.5/10

Shami was the pick of India’s bowlers, taking four wickets when no one expected him to do so. In the lead up to India’s World Cup campaign, a lot was spoken about the erratic form of the fast-bowlers. But the Bengal pacer disproved all such theories, as he claimed the first breakthrough of the innings by dismissing Younis Khan with a brute of a bouncer. The leaner, fitter Shami followed it up with three more wickets, ending with match figures of 4/35 from 9 overs.

Umesh Yadav – 8/10

Yet another written off Indian fast-bowler, Umesh struck gold in the 24th over of the Pakistan innings as he dismissed Ahmed Shehzad and Sohaib Maqsood in the space of three deliveries. Although he did leak runs, there was bite in Umesh’s bowling – something that augers well for India’s World Cup hopes.

Mohit Sharma – 8/10

Unnoticed most of the times, this fast bowler from Haryana played second fiddle to Umesh and Shami and bowled some tidy overs and got rid of the tail quite early. With an economy rate of under four and just two boundaries off his bowling, Mohit was what the Indian bowling line-up was missing for a long time.

Pakistan Cricket Team

Ahmed Shehzad – 6/10

Shehzad did all the right things during his hour and a half long stay in the middle. He played risk free shots, picked up boundaries regularly and calmed the batsmen coming in. But just when he seemed all set for a big innings, and after doing all the hard work, he slashed one uppishly to point and gave his wicket away. Since he couldn’t capitalize on his settled start, the strike rate of 64.38 only worsened the scenario for his team.

Younis Khan – 1/10

The veteran of 262 ODIs is having serious difficulties in holding onto his place in the side. His recent scores haven’t been encouraging and he looks at unease while opening the batting. His wicket early on added a lot of spunk to the underconfident Indian pace battery and with his diminishing reflexes, where does he fit in?

Haris Sohail – 6/10

Sohail’s stay in the middle was very promising, but eventually, that’s all that it was. Promising. He was timing the ball well and was scoring at a brisk pace. A 68 run partnership with Shehzad also helped in recovering from the early loss of Younis. But a good off-spinning delivery from Ashwin and a sharp catch by Suresh Raina made sure that Sohail’s time was cut short. Earlier in the game, he held onto an important catch to get rid of the ballistic Raina.

Misbah-ul-Haq – 8/10

One might wonder what this 40-year-old needs to do to win a game against India, or even score a one-day ton for that matter. Like a tape recorder on loop, Misbah produced yet another gem against India, as he single handedly kept the Pakistani fight alive with a strong 76 off 84 balls. While the entire team collapsed around him, he remained resolute and executed some stunning shots. This was one of his better knocks, add to that the two catches he took – pure masterclass.

Sohaib Maqsood – 0/10

Played a terrible shot to get out first ball. Suicidal to say the least, when the team was expecting him to hold ground and stabilize the innings.

Umar Akmal – 1/10

Dropped a sitter and gave Virat Kohli a second life, then got out for zero while batting. A solitary catch is all that he got out of the game.

Shahid Afridi – 4/10

The senior most member of the team in terms of the number of games played, Afridi was disappointing. He was not only expensive with the ball, but couldn’t do much with the bat either – falling to a poor shot.

Wahab Riaz – 7/10

Like his last World Cup outing against India, Riaz was promising early on. He constantly troubled the batsmen and didn’t give away runs too easily. The pressure he created from one end allowed the likes of Sohail Khan to flourish. One shouldn’t judge him just by the wicket of Ravindra Jadeja that he got, but the overall spirit that he brought to the Pakistani bowling.

Yasir Shah – 2/10

On a pitch that assisted spinners, Shah wasn’t of any use as he gave away runs at the rate of 7.50 an over. With the bat, he showed that he can fight it out and allowed Misbah room for his late surge.

Sohail Khan – 8.5/10

By far Pakistan’s best fast bowler on display. Had his team won, Khan would have definitely won the Man of the Match. He broke the backbone of the Indian batting by dismissing Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni cheaply, and got the important breakthroughs of Kohli and Raina. The reason why Pakistan chased 301 and not 330 was this fast bowler from Malakand.

Mohammad Irfan – 3/10

Irfan made a mess out of a promising start, as he walked on to the danger area after delivery, got warned twice and ended up bowling two questionable deliveries above the waist height. Against Raina, he was too predictable, constantly pitching it short and allowing the left-hander to pull freely. Towards the end of his final spell, he seemed unfit too. Overall, a waste of potential.